Image processing apparatus

1. An image processing apparatus comprising: an additional-object registration unit that refers to an image read from a setting form, the setting form including (a) an additional-object specification field used by a user to present an additional object that is placed onto a document in order to specify an extract area to be extracted from an image read from the document, and (b) a processing specification field used by the user to specify processing to be performed on information obtained from the extract area, identifies an image of the additional object presented in the additional-object specification field and processing specified in processing specification field on the read image of the setting form, establishes an association between the image of the additional object and the processing, and registers the image of the additional object and the processing associated therewith, a read-image processing unit that searches the read image of the document for the image of the additional object and performs the processing associated with the image of the additional object on the information obtained from the extract area specified by the image of the additional object; the setting form includes a plurality of additional-object specification fields including the additional-object specification field and a plurality of processing specification fields including the processing specification field, the additional-object specification fields being associated with the processing specification fields, respectively, the additional-object registration unit identifies images of the additional objects presented in the additional-object specification fields and the processing selected by the processing specification fields on the read image of the setting form, establishes associations between the images of the additional objects and processing, and registers the images of the additional objects and the processing associated therewith, and the read-image processing unit searches the read image of the document for the images of the additional objects and performs the processing associated with the images of the additional objects on information obtained from the extract areas specified by the images of the additional objects, the plurality of additional objects are transparent sticky notes having different colors, and the read-image processing unit searches for the images of additional objects in consideration of the color mixture of the transparent sticky notes.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the additional object is a sticky note having a predetermined shape, color and pattern, and the read-image processing unit searches the read image of the document for the image of the additional object by pattern-matching.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of additional objects are sticky notes having the same shape, but different patterns.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing is at least one of: (a) creation of a file name of a file for the read image of the document based on information extracted from the extract area; (b) character recognition processing performed on the information extracted from the extract area; and (c) creation of metadata of the file based on the information extracted from the extract area.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein after the additional-object registration unit establishes an association between the image of the additional object and the processing and registers the image and processing associated therewith, a registration information sheet containing the image of the additional object and positional information of the extract area is output.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the registration information sheet includes a two-dimensional code containing the positional information of the extract area and information about the processing associated with the extract area.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the registration information sheet includes an image in the extract area obtained from the read image of the document.

8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 7 , further comprising: a key used to execute a predetermined function in response to a user's single operation, wherein the function assigned to the key is an output operation of the registration information sheet.

9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the setting form includes a translation specification field used by a user to specify whether to use a translation rule to translate a plurality of similar character strings in the extract area into a single character string, when the additional-object registration unit detects that the translation specification field specifies to use the translation rule, the additional-object registration unit acquires the translation rule, establishes an association between the translation rule and the image of the additional object associated with the extract area, and registers the translation rule, and the read-image processing unit translates the character string obtained from the extract area under the translation rule associated with the extract area.

10. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising: a printing device that prints the setting form, and an image reading device that obtains the image read from the setting form with the additional object presented thereon and the image read from the document with the additional object placed thereon.